Associates
of the Jersey Company, 1804
Jersey City's Founding Fathers

Commemorative postcard reproduction of the Revolutionary War era Ratzer Map. Details reveal the topography of the Paulus Hook area around the time that the property was purchased by the Associates of the Jersey Company in 1804. Paulus Hook itself can be seen on the lower right, surrounded by the salt marshes which separated it from the mainlaind.

Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library

Detail from "A Map of that part of the Town of Jersey Commonly called Powles Hook", Joseph F. Mangin, City Surveyor, April 15 1804.

The Associates of
the Jersey Company was founded by a group of proprietors in 1804 with
the intention to purchase property at Paulus
Hook. It was the idea of Alexander Hamilton of New York, the first
US Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. Hamilton
believed in the future of manufacturing for the American nation and looked
over to New Jersey for a location suitable to fulfill that goal. He convinced
other New Yorkers of this idea. They, like him, were Federalists who had
lost out in American politics with the election of Thomas Jefferson and
other Democratic-Republicans in the election of 1800.

Alexander Hamilton

Jacob Radcliff

Richard Varick

Source: H. Eaton Jersey City and its Historic Sites (1899)

Anthony Dey, a lawyer,
purchased land at Paulus Hook with ferry privileges from Cornelius
Van Vorst. The property was surveyed, laid out into streets and blocks
before the transfer of title to three prominent Federalists: Colonel Richard
Varick, a lawyer and former New York City mayor, 1789-1801, and Dey's
cousin; Jacob Radcliff, a Justice of the New York Supreme Court and later
mayor of New York City, 1810-1811; and Dey, a large real estate holder.
They each held 100 shares in the Company and were to receive an annuity
from the rental of the lots and the ferry at Paulus
Hook. There were also 31 share owners of lesser amounts, such as four
New Jersey governors--Joseph Bloomfield, Aaron Ogden, William S. Pennington,
and Isaac H. Williamson--as well as Alex C. McWhorter, Elisha Boudinot,
John
C. Coles, and Samuel Pennington. Hamilton initially acted as attorney
for the group and drew up the charter of incorporation. It was approved
by the New Jersey Legislature on November 10, 1804. Hamilton, who was
killed in a duel with New York rival Aaron Burr in Weehawken in July of
that year, did not live to guide the organization he helped found.

The Associates had
a sense of history when they named the streets of their project in 1804.
They read like a "who's who" of prominent individuals from the
Revolutionary War era. Among the named streets are: Washington Street
for the General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief and first president
of the United States; Montgomery Street for Brigadier General Richard
Montgomery killed at Quebec; Warren Street for Brigadier General Joseph
Warren who was killed at Bunker Hill; Greene Street for Major-General
Nathaniel Greene; Mercer Street for Brigadier-General Hugh Mercer who
was killed at the Battle of Princeton; Steuben Street for Brigadier-General
Baron Von Steuben; and Morgan Street for Brigadier-General Daniel Morgan.

On May 4, 1805, William
Halsey proposed the building of two frame houses with brick fronts on
the property. The Jersey Company also planned a hotel on Grand Street;
it was later known as the Hudson House and became part of the Colgate
complex. They ordered shade trees and made plans for a shipyard, churches,
a school, public market, and wells for water. Isaac
Edge applied for lots to erect a grist mill. It stood at the westerly
end of the new depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Artists rendering by John Rae of Prospect Hall
the Essex Street home of Col. Richard Varick,
one of the charter members of
the Associates of the Jersey Company.

Source: Mills, W. Jay. HIstoric Houses of New Jersey (1902)

In 1816, Colonel Richard
Varick purchased lots 20, 22, and 24, on the north side of Essex Street,
and built a brick house known as "Prospect Hall," overlooking
the Hudson River. The property was landscaped with lawns and gardens to
the waterfront. Major General Marquis de Lafayette visited his former
Revolutionary War comrade Col. Varick at Prospect Hall, while touring
America in 1824 for special Fourth of July celebrations. Varick lived
at Prospect Hall until he died on July 30, 1831. The building was altered over time and became tenement housing. Eventually the structure was demolished.

The overall project
planned by the Associates of the Jersey Company was not successful, and
investors, such as the Jersey Steam Boat Ferry Company, failed. This was
due to several factors. The State of New Jersey and the City of New York
continued to claim control of land and coastal water to the New Jersey
shore at Jersey City. This discouraged investment by those who wanted
lots on the waterfront for commercial purposes. In June 1804, Hamilton
and his law partner, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, challenged New York's claim,
but press coverage over the controversy kept investors away. Also, the
shareholders of the Associates of the Jersey Company required a rental
charge to cover the annuity approved in its Articles of Agreement. Additionally,
the Associates, who owned the land, had municipal governing rights to
make regulations for the tenants or residents on the property.

The boundary dispute
between New York and New Jersey was clarified in the Treaty of 1834 and
with it the purchase of the Van Vorst mortgage by Colonel Varick and an
agreement to sell the lots in full. According to the treaty, the rights
of New Jersey to the land under the water of the Hudson River were conceded
by the State of New York. However, by this time, the impetus for the Associates
of the Jersey Company's plans and the original leadership were lost.

While the prospects
of the Associates of the Jersey Company did not live up to expectations,
it made a contribution to the founding of Jersey City. In 1819, the Jersey
Company applied to the New Jersey Legislature to incorporate the Town
of Jersey. The legislature enacted "An Act to incorporate the City
of Jersey, in the County of Bergen" on January 28, 1820. The City
of Jersey became "Jersey
City" due to the use of the expression in the body of the legislation.
Under the provision, five freeholders were to be chosen as "the Board
of Selectmen of Jersey City," thereby establishing the first governing
body of the emerging municipality. Also, the legislation included nothing
that might impede the work of the Jersey Company. In 1829, the city's
name was formally changed to "Jersey City" under a second charter
of incorporation.

Reference:Winfield, Charles
H. A Monograph of the Founding of Jersey City. New York: The Caxton
Press, 1891.